Vegas, Baby!

By the time I landed T had busted out of event 30 of the WSOP. :(

Snuffy and T came out to the airport to pick me and we headed straight to the hotel and a buffet - we were all starving.  That $35 24-hour all you can eat buffet deal at Harrah's properties is a great deal.  Then is was pokers time!

I was thinking about hitting the MGM for some 1/2 poker but Snuffy suggested we hit Excalibur because the players were usually very bad.  Boy, he couldn't have been more right.  Within in the first few hands I picked up KK and put in a raise to 8$.  There were two callers when the guy in the 7 seat (I was in the 1 seat) shipped it in for 96$.  Holy shit.  Well, here go.  If he has AA so be it.  My next decision was just call or put all my chips in play.  I decided on "ore eeeeen".  The other two guys couldn't fold fast enough.  Since this was cash they didn't make you turn over your cards until you have to show a winning hand.  I showed my KK after the river and the other guys cards were eventually turned over.  I don't remember if he voluntarily showed or if a player asked to see his hand.  Either way, his K8 MONSTER was exposed.  Toto we aren't in Kansas anymore.

After some up and down I ended up with 150$+ profit for the evening.  Beats the alternative!  All three of us managed a decent profit on the night and hand fun while we were at it.  We had some fun and friendly people at our table.  I ended up talking to the guy I thought was the toughest competition at our table.  Turns out he 4-8 tables PLO on Full Tilt.  No surprise there.  We exchanged screen names so maybe I'll have to go hunt him down on FTP one of these days.

As usual the first time in Vegas turned into a near 24 hour marathon of good times.  After a short stop at Coyote Ugly with T I headed over to the Rio to meet up with Snuffy and rail some players in the 1500$ HORSE event.  Unfortunately we got there just in time to see CK bust out.  Cardgrrl was still in good shape and @caitycaity was tearing it up.

Even though it was very late there were all kinds of notable poker players still at the Rio.  I got all starstruck like I did the very first time I attended a WSOP.  I guess it is nice to know that I haven't become jaded yet.  We finally can't keep our eyeballs open any longer and head back to our hotels.

The killer part about going to Vegas is the time change.  It hasn't failed so far, that the first night in Vegas - no matter how late - doesn't affect the time I wake up.  Sure enough I was up at 6:30am local time/8:30am home time when I was wide awake.  T was up with me in no time and we were checking our email and planning our day.  We hit Caesars Lago buffet for lunch, yum!  Then headed over to the Rio to shop and check out the tables.  Snuffy played a satellite while T and I wandered around until our fellow effer Lynx showed up. 

The next stop was the Venetian.  What a stunning place.  Easily my second favorite hotel behind Caesars.  The plan was to play a satellite to one of their deep stack events but they weren't running the one we wanted to play so we played some 1/2.  After running horribly card dead I decided we should find fishier waters.  T and I stopped to rail @VinNay and @seemitch while they played a satellite before we headed to the IP for some pokers.

I sat at a 1/2 table at IP while T went to eat and Snuffy played Pai Gow.  Definitely a different crowd at this table.  There were several players that had HUGE stacks.  A few hands in I pick up KK and just call a raise when a short stack goes all in behind me.  The original raiser also calls.  Flop comes out Kxx and it goes check check.  Turn is the last King in the deck.  I just hit quads.  What are the chances I'm going to get paid here?  Zip, zilch, nada.  Sigh.  River was a blank and I made a small bet and get no action.  The all in shorty shows the rivered flush but he lost to my DEMS QUADS BITCHES!  IP had a quads bonus of a whopping $75 but I take what I can get. 

T eventually joined my table.  She had a couple ups and downs but ended up with some extra chips when we decided it was time to crash.  It was a reasonably early night but we were already sleep deprived from the previous night.  The plan today is to hit the Bellagio and Paris, maybe do some shopping, a quick stop at the Rio and finally some more poker.  Hey we have our priorities.